Hawaii HOA Collections & Liens

Section 1: Overview

Hawaii gives condominium associations one of the more lender-aware assessment-collection frameworks in the country. But the state is not a Nevada-style super-priority jurisdiction — and that single distinction shapes nearly every collection decision on the islands. Condominium associations operate under the Hawaii Condominium Property Act, HRS Chapter 514B, while planned communities fall under HRS Chapter 421J; foreclosure for both runs through HRS Chapter 667, which the legislature restructured in 2012 and again in 2019.¹ Hawaii is not a Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act state, so its lien rules are homegrown rather than borrowed. Under HRS § 514B-146(a), the condominium assessment lien arises automatically when the association assesses sums that go unpaid for a unit's share of common expenses — no recording required for the lien to attach, though associations also record a notice of lien to preserve and enforce it.² Hawaii's commonly cited "six-month" figure is not a lien that primes a first mortgage at the mortgage's own foreclosure. It is a right to specially assess up to six months of unpaid regular common assessments against the party who buys a delinquent unit at foreclosure — with the foreclosing mortgagee itself exempt.³ Associations may foreclose judicially or nonjudicially.⁴ Hawaii sets no statutory minimum dollar amount or minimum delinquency period before an association may foreclose.⁵ The sections below detail lien creation and priority, then the operational collection and foreclosure sequence, then recent legislative and judicial activity.

Hawaii HOA Collections & Liens at a glance

Source: HRS §§ 514B-146, 514B-146.5, 421J-10.5, 657-1, and Chapter 667. Last verified: June 9, 2026.

Section 2: The lien and its priority

2A. Lien creation, authority, and what it secures

For condominiums, HRS § 514B-146(a) provides that all sums assessed by the association but unpaid for a unit's share of common expenses constitute a lien on the unit.² The lien is automatic — it arises by operation of law when the assessment is due and unpaid, and no document must be recorded for the lien to attach. The statute separately contemplates a recorded notice of lien, and a recorded lien expires six years from the date of recordation unless the association institutes enforcement proceedings before expiration; expiration of the recorded lien does not affect the automatic lien.² Associations record in the Bureau of Conveyances under HRS Chapter 502 for regular-system land, or with the Office of the Assistant Registrar of the Land Court under Chapter 501 for registered land, or both, as applicable.¹³ The lien attaches to the unit and its appurtenant common interest, not to the owner's other property. What the lien secures is broad: unpaid common assessments, late charges, interest, fines, and reasonable attorneys' fees and costs of collection are all recoverable under §§ 514B-146 and 514B-157.¹¹ For planned communities, HRS § 421J-10.5(a) creates a parallel automatic lien for unpaid assessments.¹⁴

2B. Lien priority and any super-priority component

This is the area most often misunderstood. Under HRS § 514B-146(a), the condominium association lien has priority over all other liens except two categories: first, liens for real property taxes and governmental assessments (including commercial property assessed financing, or C-PACER, non-ad valorem assessments added by Act 41, Session Laws of Hawaii 2024); and second, all sums unpaid on any mortgage recorded before the association recorded its lien notice.⁶ In practice, a pre-existing first mortgage outranks the association lien. Hawaii does not grant a Nevada-style super-priority that primes the first mortgage at the lender's foreclosure. By contrast, Nevada's super-priority lien operates under NRS 116.3116(2), giving the association priority over a first deed of trust to the extent of assessments for common expenses that would have become due — absent acceleration — during the nine months immediately preceding institution of an action to enforce the lien; the Nevada Supreme Court held in SFR Investments Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank, 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014) (en banc), that this is true lien priority, not merely payment priority.¹⁵ What Hawaii provides instead — in § 514B-146 subsections (g) through (k) — is a right for the association to levy a special assessment against the person who acquires a delinquent unit through a judicial or nonjudicial power-of-sale foreclosure, capped at the total unpaid regular monthly common assessments assessed during the six months immediately preceding completion of that foreclosure.³ Two conditions sharply limit this right. A purchaser who held a non-subordinate mortgage on the unit and who acquires title through foreclosure — including the foreclosing first mortgagee bidding in — is not liable for the special assessment; only a subsequent purchaser who buys from that mortgagee is liable.³ The six-month measure expressly excludes other special assessments, late charges, fines, penalties, interest, and collection costs and attorneys' fees.³ The figure is a one-time six-month recovery tied to a completed foreclosure, not a rolling lien that can be reasserted period after period. For planned communities, § 421J-10.5 sets the lien's priority by the association documents or, absent that, by recordation date, and bars any document amendment from giving the association lien priority over a previously recorded mortgage; planned communities have the same six-month recovery against a post-foreclosure purchaser but no statutory priming priority.¹⁴

2C. CC&R interaction, corporate-law overlay, and federal overlay

Recorded declarations, bylaws, and CC&Rs supplement the statutory lien — for example, by setting late-fee and interest rates and authorizing collection costs — but they cannot override the statutory priority scheme. A planned community's documents cannot, by later amendment, leapfrog a mortgage that was recorded before the amendment.¹⁴ On timing, the statute of limitations on the underlying assessment debt runs six years under HRS § 657-1(1), Hawaii's limitations period for actions on a contract, obligation, or liability; § 514B-146 separately requires that proceedings to enforce an association lien begin within six years after the assessment became due, tolled while a bankruptcy automatic stay is in effect.¹⁶ Three federal frameworks operate on top of Hawaii law: the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which can reach association collection counsel and agencies; the Bankruptcy Code's automatic stay, which halts collection on a petition filing; and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. Hawaii's own statute reinforces the last of these by barring nonjudicial power-of-sale foreclosure against units owned by deployed active-duty servicemembers in most cases.

Section 3: The collection and foreclosure process

3A. Pre-lien collection sequence

Hawaii does not impose a separate statutory pre-lien notice for the lien to attach, because the lien arises automatically when assessments go unpaid — this applies to both condos and planned communities.² In practice, the statutory notice obligations begin when the association moves toward foreclosure. Before that point, the owner holds meaningful statutory dispute rights. Under § 514B-146(f), a condominium owner who pays the full amount of common expenses claimed may then require mediation or file in small claims court to dispute the amount or validity — a "pay first, dispute later" structure that applies to common-expense assessments only, not to fines or other charges (condominiums only).¹⁷ An owner may also request a written itemized statement of the amount owed. Planned community owners have a comparable mediation right under §§ 421J-10.5(d) and 421J-13 (planned communities).¹⁴

3B. Recording and the pre-foreclosure sequence

To move from an automatic lien to enforcement, the association prepares a notice of default and intention to foreclose under HRS § 667-92 — this step applies to both associations. That notice must state the delinquency, give a deadline, advise the owner of the right to submit a payment plan within 30 days, include contact information for approved housing and credit counselors, and carry specific capitalized warning language.⁷ The association may record the notice before its deadline date under § 667-93, where it has the effect of a notice of pendency of action and binds later purchasers and encumbrancers.¹⁸ For condominiums specifically, § 514B-146.5 adds two requirements: the notice must inform the owner of a right to request mediation within 30 days, and it must include capitalized language clarifying that the notice concerns only the association debt, not the owner's mortgage.¹⁹ If the owner timely requests mediation, the association must agree to mediate and cannot proceed with nonjudicial foreclosure until mediation has occurred or the time for it has elapsed; mediation must be completed within 60 days.¹⁹ The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, through the Real Estate Commission, registers condominium associations and funds a condominium mediation program from the Condominium Education Trust Fund.²⁰ Foreclosure is conducted by the board or managing agent acting in the association's name; the lien statute does not prescribe a particular recorded board vote.⁹

3C. Foreclosure mechanics and thresholds

Hawaii allows both judicial foreclosure by action under Chapter 667 Part IA and nonjudicial power-of-sale foreclosure under Chapter 667 Part VI — the "Association Alternate Power of Sale Foreclosure Process" — and both paths are available to condos and planned communities.⁴ Here is the defining Hawaii story. The litigation began with Sakal v. Ass'n of Apartment Owners of Hawaiian Monarch, 143 Haw. 219, 426 P.3d 443 (2018), in which the Intermediate Court of Appeals held that "a power of sale in favor of a foreclosing association must otherwise exist, in the association's bylaws or another enforceable agreement with its unit owners, in order for the association to avail itself of the nonjudicial power of sale foreclosure procedures set forth in [HRS] chapter 667" — a holding the Hawaii Supreme Court followed in Malabe v. Ass'n of Apartment Owners of Executive Centre, SCWC-17-0000145 (Haw. 2020).²¹ In response, the legislature passed Act 282, Session Laws of Hawaii 2019, confirming that associations may foreclose nonjudicially under Part VI regardless of whether their governing documents contain power-of-sale language.²¹ Under the current process, after the § 667-92 notice and any mediation, the owner has 60 days to cure by paying the default plus the association's fees and costs, and the association must rescind the notice if the default is cured or a payment plan is completed.⁸ The public sale under § 667-95 takes place on the later of at least 60 days after the public notice of sale is distributed, or at least 14 days after the third weekly publication; § 667-96 requires the notice to be published once each week for three consecutive weeks.²² Hawaii sets no statutory minimum dollar threshold and no minimum delinquency duration before an association may foreclose.⁵ Critically, a lien arising solely from fines, penalties, legal fees, or late fees cannot be foreclosed nonjudicially — it must be filed in court under Part IA.¹² The same court-only path applies to units owned by deployed servicemembers in most cases.¹²

3D. Post-sale: redemption, deficiency, surplus, reinstatement

Hawaii's association nonjudicial process generally provides no post-sale right of redemption. The exception is § 667-92(f)(2): if the association cannot serve the notice within 60 days and proceeds by publication without obtaining court permission, it forfeits any deficiency judgment and the owner earns one year from the date the association records the deed to redeem by paying the delinquency.¹⁰ On deficiency judgments, the same subsection bars a deficiency where the association proceeded by publication without court approval, and Part VI limits association deficiency judgments; the owner-occupant deficiency bar in mortgage foreclosures appears at § 667-38.¹⁰ Surplus proceeds and post-foreclosure rental income go to existing lienholders by lien priority — not pro rata — under § 514B-146(n), with the association's delinquent-assessment lien paid first among the association's own claims.²³ The owner retains the right to reinstate by curing the default before the sale, and any nonjudicial foreclosure is stayed while a timely payment plan is performed.⁸ Where Hawaii has a split structure, the condominium-specific mediation and notice add-ons in § 514B-146.5 apply only to condominiums; planned communities rely on Chapter 421J and Chapter 667 without the § 514B-146.5 overlay.¹⁹

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

C. Active legislative debates

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Hawaii sits in the middle of the national collections spectrum rather than at its aggressive end. True super-priority-lien states — led by Nevada's nine-month priming lien and several Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act jurisdictions — let an association lien wipe out a portion of the first mortgage at the lender's foreclosure; Hawaii does not, because its six-month figure operates only as a recovery against a later purchaser and exempts the foreclosing mortgagee. Hawaii is therefore closer in practical effect to threshold-restricted states such as California, whose Civil Code § 5720 bars HOA foreclosure unless the delinquent amount reaches $1,800 or more (excluding accelerated assessments, late charges, fees, collection costs, attorneys' fees, and interest) or the assessments are more than 12 months delinquent — along with Arizona and Colorado.²⁸ Hawaii imposes no minimum dollar threshold of its own and instead restrains associations through detailed Chapter 667 notice, mediation, and fines-foreclosure limits. For multi-state operators, the key implication is clear: a Hawaii association cannot count on priming a first mortgage and should treat the six-month recovery as a backstop against purchasers, not as leverage over lenders. Hawaii's direction of travel is toward more owner protection, as the 2019 confirmation of nonjudicial authority was paired with mediation mandates and the 2024 wrongful-foreclosure damages rulings.

Recommendations

For an association facing a live delinquency, the staged path is: (1) confirm the debt composition first, because a balance made up solely of fines, penalties, legal fees, or late fees cannot be foreclosed nonjudicially and must go to court under Part IA; if any regular common assessments are unpaid, the nonjudicial Part VI route stays open. (2) Serve a compliant § 667-92 notice of default and intention to foreclose that includes the 30-day payment-plan right, counselor contact information, and — for condominiums — the § 514B-146.5 mediation-request language and mortgage-disclaimer text; one defective notice is the most common ground for a wrongful-foreclosure claim. (3) Honor any timely mediation request and any reasonable payment plan, since the statute bars rejecting a reasonable plan and stays foreclosure during its performance. (4) Calendar the six-year limitations clock under § 657-1 and § 514B-146 from each assessment's due date. The decision to foreclose changes if the only arrears are fines or fees (switch to judicial), if the unit owner is a deployed servicemember (court-only in most cases), or if the first mortgagee is itself foreclosing (the association's six-month recovery cannot reach the foreclosing mortgagee, so pursuing the unit may yield little). For multi-state operators, do not import Nevada or UCIOA super-priority assumptions into Hawaii; the benchmark that would change strategy is a future statutory amendment converting the six-month recovery into a true priming lien, which has not occurred as of June 9, 2026.

Caveats

The "six-month" figure is the most error-prone item in Hawaii collections coverage: it is verified here as a special-assessment recovery against a post-foreclosure purchaser under § 514B-146(g)-(k), not a Nevada-style lien that primes a first mortgage, and the foreclosing mortgagee is exempt. Hawaii's nonjudicial association foreclosure was restructured by Act 282 (SLH 2019) and the underlying Chapter 667 framework by Act 182 (SLH 2012); pre-2012 descriptions of association power-of-sale foreclosure are not current law. Do not cite the repealed Chapter 514A as governing; condominiums are governed by Chapter 514B. The exact public-sale timing and notice content are read from the current §§ 667-92, 667-95, and 667-96 text. The capitol.hawaii.gov live statutory pages block automated retrieval, so several statutory texts were cross-checked against the state's data.capitol.hawaii.gov mirror and the DCCA Real Estate Branch's January 2025 codification of Chapter 514B; readers should confirm against the live statute before acting. Case outcomes (Wong, Rubalcaba) address wrongful-foreclosure damages, not the validity of compliant foreclosures, and the federal overlays (FDCPA, bankruptcy stay, SCRA) can independently alter timing and remedies.

Footnotes

1. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 667-1 (definitions referencing association liens under §§ 421J-10.5 and 514B-146) ↩
2. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-146(a) ↩
3. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-146(g)-(k) ↩
4. Haw. Rev. Stat. ch. 667, pts. IA and VI ↩
5. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-146 (no statutory dollar or duration threshold for foreclosure) ↩
6. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-146(a)(1)-(2) ↩
7. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 667-92 ↩
8. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 667-92(c); Haw. Rev. Stat. § 667-94 ↩
9. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-104; § 514B-146(a) ↩
10. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 667-92(f)(2); Haw. Rev. Stat. § 667-38 ↩
11. Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 514B-146, 514B-157 ↩
12. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-146.5(c) ↩
13. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 667-1 (definition of "record") ↩
14. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 421J-10.5 ↩
15. Nev. Rev. Stat. § 116.3116(2); SFR Investments Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014) (en banc) ↩
16. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 657-1(1); Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-146 ↩
17. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-146(f) ↩
18. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 667-93 ↩
19. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-146.5(a)-(b) ↩
20. Haw. Dep't of Commerce & Consumer Affairs, Real Estate Branch, Condominium Registration and Education ↩
21. Sakal v. Ass'n of Apartment Owners of Hawaiian Monarch, 143 Haw. 219, 426 P.3d 443 (Ct. App. 2018); Malabe v. Ass'n of Apartment Owners of Executive Centre, No. SCWC-17-0000145 (Haw. 2020); Act 282, 2019 Haw. Sess. Laws ↩
22. Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 667-95, 667-96 ↩
23. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-146(n) ↩
24. H.B. 2801, Act 41, 2024 Haw. Sess. Laws (2024 Regular Session), signed May 30, 2024 ↩
25. Wong v. Ass'n of Apartment Owners of Harbor Square, No. SCAP-22-0000552, 154 Haw. 58, 545 P.3d 547 (2024) ↩
26. Rubalcaba v. Ass'n of Apartment Owners of Makakilo Cliffs, No. SCRQ-23-0000331 (Haw. May 1, 2024) ↩
27. H.B. 1209, 2026 Regular Session (carried over, not enacted) ↩
28. Cal. Civ. Code § 5720 ↩